LG Life & Healthcare announced its plan to invest up to 1 trillion won in acquisition of domestic firms and others for the next five years. According to investment banking sources on February 8, the LG Group company made public its time schedule to pay back debts by 2019 and investment plans in an investor relations session held on the 6th. The company recently issued corporate bonds worth 150 billion won and at the same time published an investment prospectus in a regulatory filing.
According to the document, LG Healthcare will pay down its debt of 1,209.3 billion won as of the end of the third quarter last year to about 100 billion won by 2019 by using its retained earnings. It also announced the timetable for debt payment including 241.5 billion won this year and 292.8 billion won in 2016.
The company said, however, the total debt balance by 2019 would be almost same or slightly higher than that now. That's because it would need more than 1 trillion won of new funds to acquire two to three domestic companies.
For the past five years since 2009, the company has spent about 1 trillion won in buying up retail brands such as the Faceshop, Haitai Beverage, TheBom, EverLife, and the energy drink unit of Youngjin Pharmaceutical. Last year, it tried to purchase Elizabeth Arden, the U.S. cosmetic brand whose worth is more than 1 trillion won. In the process, its debt level has soared by five times from 242.6 billion won as late as 2009.
